Thursday, November 14, 2013

Once Upon A Time In Wonderland 1.05 Review: Love Isn't Always Enough

All those that have yet to watch
tonight’s episode of Once Upon A Time In
Wonderland, entitled ‘Heart of Stone’, this would be a good time to do that
before reading ahead. For this is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

This was a much stronger episode
than this series has head probably since the premiere. I think that is because
it did not rely heavily on Alice’s quest to find Cyrus, in that the flashback
scenes were of the Red Queen’s past and how she became who she is today.

I like Alice and all, but I
somehow find myself caring more about the Red Queen than Alice’s love quest.
This really was her episode; she
owned it. The depth that they’ve added to her by showing us the struggles Will
and her went through upon reaching Wonderland, and even before leaving for it. There’s
something about a woman that will fight and strive for more than she is that is
admirable. Sure, she betrayed her love for Will, but that showed the honest
truth in the matter that love isn’t always enough. That being said, this is a
series based on fairytales, so I’m doubting that will be viewed as a good
thing, but I can’t help rooting for this character now more than ever. Despite
the fact that she married a man that looked like he could’ve been her father,
and was acting like it too.

There were some other intriguing
points to this episode too. Cyrus managed to escape, which I’m glad he was able
to do because Alice fighting for him was a little too one-sided for my liking.
The White Rabbit gave up more about Alice and her supposed “weakness” of caring
about others. His betrayal, while I’m pretty sure I understand the
circumstances, reminds me very much of Rachel’s dad in Revolution; good intentions, but bad choices made despite that.

Anastasia (a.k.a. the Red Queen)
used the dust she acquired with the use of Alice’s pure heart to resurrect Will
from his stony composure (see what I did there?). She still loves him, and
obviously the King is out of the picture, or else he’d be around for his
people. I’m just not sure how much I want these two to be together because they
don’t seem meant for each other. They may love each other, but like I said,
love is not enough. Besides, they seem more like each other’s first loves than
true, soul mate kind of loves.

All in all, I really loved this
episode. Going in, I actually thought this was going to be my last week of this
series, but if they can keep things going more like this I’ll have to stick
around. I love Alice’s will to fight, and the Red Queen now more than ever, so
this is beginning to be a more attractive series than it has been the last few
episodes. By next week’s previews, I’m looking forward to Alice’s struggle on
what love she’ll choose – family or Cyrus.

My rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Best Line:

“If I wanted you to fall off the cliff, I’d push you.” – the
Red Queen explains to Alice rather eloquently.